Even the Rain

Movie: Even the Rain

Genre: historical drama

Synopsis: Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Costa (Luis Tosar) are producing a movie about the treatment of the native American population by Christopher Columbus.  For budgetary reasons, they are filming in Cochabamaba, Bolivia.  It happens that Cochabamada is in the throes of government efforts to privatize all water sources.  People are not even allowed to have their own wells.  One of the natives cast in the movie is a driving force behind the popular uprising to protest this privatization effort.

The movie goes back and forth  between it’s movie within a movie showing the horribly inhumane treatment the natives received at the hands of the Spanish and the way the current government is treating its own citizens in modern day Cochabamada.

My two cents: After seeing this movie, I charged home to see just how accurate the two story threads were,  It turns out they were both dead-on accurate.  In 2000, the government really did try to privatize all sources of water in Cochabamaba.  The resulting uprising by the people was called “The Bolivian Water War”.  Had the privatization been successful, people would have had to pay up to 50% of their income for water.

And backing up 500 years . . . the Spanish really did require natives over the age of 14 to pay a tax that consisted of either a tiny bell (the size worn by hunting hawks) with gold or 50 pound of cotton every three months.  Failure to pay the tax would result in one or both of the native’s hands being cut off.  It is pretty grim stuff.  Also, the priest depicted in the movie-within-the-movie making the exact speech shown.

As to the movie itself, it took me a while to separate Gael Garcia Bernal from the image of Carlos burned into my brain by 5½ hours of the “Carlos” movie.  I thought this was a great movie – it was a real eye-opener regarding current conditions in Bolivia as well as just how horribly the native population was treated from a492 on.  One problem I had with the movie was with the two main characters: Sebastian and Costa. It seemed that they were inconsistent in how the characters reacted to the current plight of the native population.  Sometimes Sebastian was sympathetic and Costa did not give a damn, other times Costa put himself at risk to help while Sebastian only seemed to care for the fate of the movie.

Bottom line: most definitely see this movie.  If you have the opportunity, before you see it – do yourself a favor and do a little research on Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomé de las Casas and look up The Bolivian Water War in Cochabamada.  It will help you appreciate what you see in the movie.

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